Defining a Zero Energy Capable Home

On August 10, 2006, the city council of Austin, Texas, passed a resolution creating a task force that would work to make all new locally built single-family homes zero energy capable by 2015. The task of implementing this directive—including defining what was meant by zero energy capable—fell to the city’s municipal electric utility, Austin Energy. As the manager of the Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) program, the job of putting together the needed task force fell to me.